8 facts about Agatha Christie’s Greenway

Greenway House and Gardens gives visitors a rare glimpse into the private life of bestselling novelist Agatha Christie. The interior of the house is full of possessions owned by the family, including artefacts brought back from archaeology digs, outfits worn by Agatha Christie, and of course numerous copies of her famous stories.

Managed by the National Trust, Greenway is the perfect place to explore and learn about the Queen of Crime. Find out more about this little slice of paradise with our facts below:

1) One day Agatha Christie saw that Greenway House, a propertyshe had admired whilst growing up in the English Riviera, was up for sale and shecouldn’t resist purchasing it as a family holiday home.

2) During the Second World War, Greenway was requisitioned bythe US Coastguard for six months. Their time there is remembered by a friezethat one of the coastguards painted on the wall of the library, which depictsall of the places that their flotilla went including Bermuda, Morocco and evenGreenway itself.

3) Agatha Christie famously described Greenway as “theloveliest place in the world.”

4) Mathew Prichard, Agatha Christie’s grandson, fondlyremembers spending evenings in the drawing room at Greenway where Agatha was anxious to test the plausibility and plot of her latest book in front of a live audience. He particularly remembers Agatha reciting A Pocket Full of Rye, a few chapters at a time, encouraging the family to guess the identity of the murderer.

5) Greenway House and Gardens acted as inspiration for a few ofChristie’s novels including Dead Man’s Folly and Five Little Pigs.

6) Theatre producer, Peter Saunders, fondly remembers visitingGreenway in his autobiography, quoting Agatha Christie as saying “We do exactlywhat we like in this house. Most of us play cricket in the morning.”

7) Agatha Christie’s daughter, Rosalind Hicks, donated Greenwayto the National Trust. They restored the property in 2005, later opening it tothe public in 2009.

8) As part of the final series of ITV’s Agatha Christie’s Poirot, starringDavid Suchet as Hercule Poirot, Greenway was used as the location to film Dead Man’s Folly.